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Â· Illinois Ballot Access Laws On Trial

Â· More people ought to ask for this: “The FBI has conducted more than 1,000 interviews during its investigation of Mayor Richard Daley’s administration, but Daley alone had a court reporter present to transcribe his statement to investigators, an FBI agent testified Thursday.”

Â· Radogno: State finances are â€˜a messâ€™

Â· More on Mayor Blase’s arrest:

Federal agents Tuesday executed a search warrant at the insurance agency, based in Wheeling, and found a series of memos indicating at least 10 Niles business clients received various favors performed by Blase from the local government in return for their insurance business, the affidavit said.

One note mentioned helping a customer â€œin getting 4:00 a.m. liquor license,â€ adding â€œwill give us the chance to get back the account.â€ A file marked with the customer’s name contained a copy of a business card of an FBI agent who interviewed the customer in 2003 about the mayor’s dealings, records show. Another note discussed problems one of the insurance company’s customers was having with the Niles Fire Department. The note said, “failed fire inspection,â€ adding â€œmayor had (illegible) intervene.â€

Â· The Nation publishes a long, thoughtful piece about Obama, talks about his involvement with Duckworth but doesn’t print a word about Alexi. I thought Obama was proud of that one?

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 4:05 am

Comments

Question about the Alexi situation. Has anyone looked into the lending practices of Chase, LaSalle, Citibank, Charter One, Fifth/Third, Bank of America and others? NO ONE has accused Broadway of doing anything illegal, just of making loans to questionable figures. I doubt Broadway is the only bank in the area that has made loans to dubious figures.

Alexi has handled this thing poorly, but is Broadway Bank engaging in a practice that other banks, including large corporate banks, don’t? I doubt it. Then why the fuss? Because Michael Madigan sought to ruin this man, regardless of what he did to his family, their business and ANYONE who dared to publicly support him. MADIGAN should be absolutely ashamed of himself and hopefully at sometime he will pay for this.

If Alexi and Broadway did something illegal prosecute him. But if he is being tarred and feathered for his bank doing business just like everyone else then something is blatantly wrong here. Alexi is not a seasoned politician and he fumbled this one, but I still question as to why he had to deal with it in the first place.

I’m a proud Illinois Democrat, but I’m ashamed of the immature, vindictive chairman of my state party, he really needs to grow up.

Comment by wndycty Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 7:37 am
Why is the feds showing Mayor Daley favoritism when he should be the one on trial here. I believe that the feds should target the leader of the organization and work there way down to any underlings whom might have violated laws without the head of the organization being aware.

Mayor Daley and his top lawyer or corporation counsel knew about almost all that is on trial.

When will the feds get to the root of the hiring improprieties that stem from the top. If the Mayor didn’t allow it in his administration, it wouldn’t be. He rules with a tight fist and not much passes Mr. Daley’s 5th floor office.

Comment by One Man Can Make A Difference Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 9:38 am
“Question about the Alexi situation. Has anyone looked into the lending practices of Chase, LaSalle, Citibank, Charter One, Fifth/Third, Bank of America and others? NO ONE has accused Broadway of doing anything illegal, just of making loans to questionable figures. I doubt Broadway is the only bank in the area that has made loans to dubious figures.”

Ok, first off, see the following link:
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=18856

Here’s the initial summary of the above article:

“The Dutch parent of LaSalle Bank Corp. agreed Dec. 19 to pay $80 million in civil penalties in connection with violations of anti money laundering regulations.

The total includes $15 million that will be collected by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the largest penalty against a bank ever imposed by the state regulatory agency.”

This hit dirtectly at ABN AMRO Holdings, and the Fed’s are still looking at them, and this whole thing started in 2001. And both ABN AMRO and LaSalle Bank have provided literally complete cooperation with the Feds (the WSJ has been all over this story).

What Broadway Bank is going through is probably just the start, and anybody who thinks they are out of the woods is just not looking at the facts. The Feds don’t move fast, but right now, money laundrying is a high priority target, and bottom line, is that a substantive number of bank loans to questionable characters in high cash volume businesses is, at least these days, an open invitation to the Feds to take a seriously close look (and their version of “taking a look” has a great deal in common with an extended autopsy).

By now, Broadway Bank is probably wishing they had never heard of these people.

Comment by Making The Wheels Turn Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 12:08 pm
that was brought up in one of the books about Mayor Daley I. I can’t remember which one-I think it was one of the Len O’Connor books. He was asked to come in for questioning with the IRS and brought a court reporter. According to the account, the agents were so shocked they canceled the interview. I am not a lawyer so I dont know why they would do that. All I’m saying is that I have read about the Daleys bringing court reporters in the past and it looks like Richie is doing the same thing.

Can one of the legal minds out there explain to me why you would do that? I am very curious as to the strategy there. Thanks!

Comment by Minion Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 4:28 pm
Every single article I have read on the Alexi situation states that nothing illegal appears to have occured. Every one. If it was a crime to have customers that broke the law, you would have to start going after gas stations for selling them gas, cell phone companies for giving them phones, landlords for renting to them…ad infinitum. Broadway Bank financed legitimate and entirely legal activities. No one is saying otherwise. And if they did do something shady, don’t you think they would try to stay in the shadows, instead of step into a statewide race?

Comment by another banker Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 11:42 pm
Does anyone know a good reason why taxpayers should pay for primaries that restrict other citizens and groups from ballot access?

Has anyone researched the pros and cons of a two party system vs a multi party or independent system?

Is the marketplace of ideas and democracy really better served by unevenly restricting citizen access to ballots?

Why should citizens who don’t feel comfortable in either clique A or gang B be discriminated against in the most important dialogue of our democracy?

Are there any reasons (not greed, power, controlling others) why we compromise the principle of free and equal ballot access?

A lot of citizens have fought and many died to protect fundamental principles based in our Constitution. It would be a shame to lose sight of our principles because of legal technicalities and a tremendous dishonor if done for political advantage.

Is there really is a good reason to discriminate in ballot access that is consistant with our Constitution?

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 9:24 am